


Hey Jude

by Hexpresso (corchen)



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Corpo V (Cyberpunk 2077), E3 2018 V, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon Fix-It, Spoilers, netrunning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corchen/pseuds/Hexpresso
Summary: The singing faded off into humming, and Judy realised that she was being gently rocked from side-to-side. She felt a gentle kiss on her cheek, and despite the fear, she opened her eyes, and turned her head.Hey Jude, Chapter 6Set after the 'Temperance' ending. Judy is lost and confused when V disappears. The last conversation they had, V said she thought she might have a way to solve the problem of the chip in her head - and then nothing. Judy is desperate to know whether V has ghosted her, is in trouble, or worse. What she doesn't understand at first is that the answer has been in front of her all along. Unfortunately, when she finally realises, it only raises yet more questions.
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/Female V, Judy Alvarez/V
Comments: 126
Kudos: 340
Collections: Lizzie's Bar





	1. I Can Dream About You (Hall & Oates)

**Author's Note:**

> Tags will be subject to change as the fic progresses, I don't want to spoil too much. Many thanks to the chooms at the Lizzie's Bar discord for encouragement, in particular to greendotsandwords who patiently listened to me ramble on about this for far too long.

The first time it happened - ‘though she didn’t identify it as the first time for days - she was staring blankly at the vending machine in her apartment and trying half-heartedly to decide between Sojasil Nitroglycerine and Sojasil Dynamite. She didn’t really want either of them, but she was aware in a dull sort of way that her body had been sending her hunger signals for a while. She didn’t feel hungry - hadn’t felt much of anything since V disappeared, to be honest - but she knew she should eat.

The worst thing was not knowing what had happened. V had been up to something. That holo call had made it pretty clear. “High time I faced it. Can’t be sure it’ll work, but I gotta try”. And the way she had sounded. So subdued. So unlike herself.

But then - nothing. No message from V, nothing on the news, not even a whisper of a hint of a rumour that anything out of the ordinary had happened. And it hadn’t just been a few days, it had been two weeks.

She hadn’t been all that worried at first. They still hadn’t codified their relationship, not formally, even though they had added each other to their apartment security. V would go days without contacting her sometimes, when she was in the depths of some gig or other, but she always replied to Judy’s texts eventually.

The first evening, Judy went to bed worried for V, but in an abstract fashion. By the end of the second day and still no word, she found herself chaining smoke after smoke, littering the area below her window with burnt-out butts and making herself feel sick and dizzy.

The internal argument was endless. She doesn’t want to call she can’t call she doesn’t want to call it’s your fault it’s no-ones fault it’s yours it’s yours it’s yours it’s you it’s you...

Judy had sent text after text and then that morning - if you could call it morning when she hadn’t been to sleep - sent a voice message. A pathetic, pitiful voice message that she wanted to take back the second she hit send.

“..please, just give me some kinda signal that you’re ok…”

Fuck, how pathetic. But she couldn’t take it back, and with a groan she picked herself up from the floor and stumbled to the machine.

That was when it happened.

As she was trying to make her choice, some new jingle played through the machine’s tinny speakers. The weird thing was, it sounded like old-fashioned acoustic guitar strings. She scowled. Kicked the machine, swore when she stubbed her big toe, and limped angrily into her workroom, thoughts of food forgotten.

That was the first time.

The second time was just the next day. She was walking home from Lizzie’s (walking. Alone, through Night City, at 4 in the morning. Someone could read something into that, were they so inclined) and as she came up to the entrance of an alley there was a brief, static-y blare of music from an abandoned radio, accompanied by the popping of a suddenly over-charged neon strip that flared bright red and gold before exploding in a shower of sparks.

Judy jumped and swore, the latest in a chain of cigarettes dropping from her lips into a puddle of - she didn’t want to know what. There was a scuffle from the alleyway, retreating footsteps. The little voice in the back of her head that thought it was a good idea to walk home suggested that it might also be a good idea to investigate.

She ignored it, and lit another cigarette.

She realised that something weird was happening the third time she heard the song, two days later. It was the first time she heard more than a scattered handful of notes, but it wasn’t the song itself that clued her in. It was how she heard it. She was walking across the parking lot outside her building when the car next to her suddenly came to alive, the electric starter turning over with a loud *click*, the headlights flaring to life, the radio coming on suddenly. Then the car next to it, then the next, in a wave across the lot until there were eight cars and vans lit up like beacons, each blaring the same music.

It was a song she didn’t recognise, no lyrics, just piano and guitar - acoustic again - a weird mix of upbeat and depressed. Bittersweet. Her audio implant catalogued the notes without her noticing, feeding the information on pitch, tone, sustain, into her subconscious mind.

It stopped as soon as it had started, the vehicles all simultaneously going silent and dark. Judy, who had been standing frozen in the headlights, regained her senses and darted in a panic across the lot, taking the stairs up to her floor two at a time.

She slammed the door to her apartment behind her, stabbing frantically at the control panel until she was sure it was locked. What the hell was that?!

It took almost all of her remaining cigarettes before she stopped shaking, and instead spent the night restless and nauseated, heart-racing.

After that, it was like the damned song was chasing her. It was everywhere, bleeping out of people’s holos, playing on ad boards and from vending machines and one day every single fucking stero she passed played a single note from the tune, in order.

Judy would have thought she was going insane if it weren’t for the fact that other people could hear it too. In an effort to take her mind off the music, she decided to find her courage and go to V’s apartment.

Judy had never been to V’s apartment - there had never been time - but she did know where it was, and V had added her to the security so she could get in. She debated with herself for hours. Should she go? If V was ignoring her calls then of course she shouldn’t - if V was alive but needed help then how could she do anything else? - if the apartment was empty… There were just so many different things that could be going on. The one constant , the one thing she kept repeating to herself, was that just perhaps she would find some sort of answer.

Eventually, she gave herself a metaphorical kick up the ass, and headed over to Watson, and Megabuilding H10. Making her way through the atrium, past the vendors, through the crowded gym, she managed to keep a firm grip on her feelings. But when she finally reached Vs floor, and the elevator doors slid open as she passed them and that damned song started playing once again, the screens papering the walls showing a dizzying kaleidoscope of colours, she almost lost it. She stumbled across the hallway, desperately grateful when the door to Vs apartment slid open for long enough to admit her, before closing and cocooning her inside.

It smelled like V. It was as if she had just left, and the mixture of comfort and desperate loneliness made Judy suddenly nauseous. She reached for her ever present cigarettes, but stopped just short of lighting up. V wouldn’t appreciate it if her apartment stank of smoke.

She took a deep, shuddering breath instead. It was then that she finally processed what she had seen as she passed through the door. Wait. What the fuck?

Turning around, she stepped back out into the hallway, and waited for the door to close. Yeah, that was what she’d thought she’d seen. There was an eviction notice pasted to the outside of V’s door. Notice to quit… non-payment of rent… end of this month…

Shit. It was the 29th now. And this notice was dated - what? Three weeks ago? Two days after Vs last holo call. Judy wasn’t sure what to feel. She headed back into the apartment, thoughts racing.

No way could V have been back here since that notice was posted. She had money, Judy knew, she’d have sorted out the rent issue if nothing else. Well, that was one answer. V wasn’t going about her life as normal. She hadn’t ghosted Judy after all. Not that Judy had ever believed that she had, not really. But that little voice had been very insistent. Everybody leaves you. You’re not good enough. This was all your fault.

Judy couldn’t help the flare of relief, even if this meant that it had to be one of the nastier scenarios at play.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by a rustle from the bed, and an inquisitive, chirruping noise. What the…

Her eyes widened as the rustling continued, and a sleek, hairless head popped out from the rumpled covers. Two wide, turquoise eyes stared at her and she stared back with a mixture of disbelief and amusement. A cat. Of course V owned a cat. In a city where the taxes on animals were astronomical, and owning an unlicensed pet could see you fined of every asset you had and then some - the merc had a cat.

She approached cautiously, hand held out. That was what you were supposed to do, right?

The cat came fully out of the covers and strolled confidently over to butt at her hand with its head. Judy froze. Er. Now what?

The cat nudged her again, angling itself so that it could shove its head up under her hand, pushing insistently into her palm. Almost of their own volition, her fingers curled around and scratched at the cat’s warm, surprisingly velvety skin. A low rumbling sound came from the cat, and Judy realised it was purring. She smiled, the first real smile that had passed over her lips for almost a month, and sat down on the bed.

The cat climbed into her lap and circled around, before settling itself down to knead gently at her knee, still purring, eyes slitted. Judy absently continued her stroking of the cats head and ears, and nodded to herself, a glint of determination in her eyes.

“Alright, cat. I’ve been moping about for long enough. Time to actually do something.”


	2. Echoes of You - Marianas Trench

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy goes to V's apartment in search of answers, but what she discovers is far from what she expected. For once, though, the surprise is not an unwelcome one.

> _The cat climbed into her lap and circled around, before settling itself down to knead gently at her knee, still purring, eyes slitted. Judy absently continued her stroking of the cats head and ears, and nodded to herself, a glint of determination in her eyes._
> 
> _“Alright, cat. I’ve been moping about for long enough. Time to actually do something.”_

* * *

Half an hour had passed, and Judy was still sitting on the edge of V’s bed, absent-mindedly petting the cat. (She had decided to call the cat Turbo - at least for the time being - as she had no idea what V had named him. His ears reminded her of the main character in that cheesy 'Turbo Dracula' game). It was all very well deciding that she had to Do Something, the problem was that she didn’t have a fucking clue where to start. She knew V’d had a plan, but she didn’t know what the plan _was_. 

V didn’t like to talk about what was going on with that fucking Arasaka junk in her head and Judy - if she was honest with herself, Judy didn’t either. It was a bad trait of hers, she knew this. When something was just too terrible to contemplate, she would just… not think about it at all. Pretend it wasn’t there.

Of course she could see how much V was hurting about the whole situation. Not just emotionally, although of course that was unavoidably there, but physically. Every time that damned chip in her head ... did whatever it did, her reaction was worse, the time it took her to recover was longer. And it hadn't just been when the chip fritzed either. V had tried to hide it, but Judy had seen how tired she was, how she moved (when she thought no-one was looking) as if every joint burned.

The last time Judy had seen V, she had noticed V wince when Judy had touched her. She’d played it off as a healing injury, making a joke about clumsy mercs, but Judy could see that there was no injury. Still, she’d let V pretend, keeping her kisses feather-light, pulling V onto her shoulder that night, saying she wanted to be the big spoon for a change. Even with that care, V’s eyes had borne the dark circles of a sleepless night and there had been blood on the pillow in the morning.

Every time V left Judy kicked herself that they hadn’t managed to have any sort of discussion about what the future - or even the next fortnight - held. But then every time V walked back into her life, Judy couldn’t bring herself to say anything. There was a sort of desperation in V’s requests to _‘talk about your day, not mine’_ or _‘how ‘bout we just cuddle up and watch a movie’_ , and Judy had the feeling that perhaps she had been V’s only escape from the reality of her dire situation.

Unfortunately, that had left her with very little idea of the actual details of V’s problems, or of what she was working on to fix things.

Ugh, she was the worst fucking girlfriend. _‘Hey V, fix my problems! Find Evelyn, help me with Clouds, kill Woodman! Take on a whole gang of Scavs for me! You’re dying? Yeah - let’s not talk about that.’_ She clenched her fists, trying to let the sharp pain of her fingernails cutting into her palms stave off the hot tears of shame pricking at the backs of her eyes. She would be no help to V - if V even needed her help - if she was paralysed by self-hatred.

Her unhappy internal dialogue was broken by a noise at the door and she jumped to her feet, unceremoniously dislodging the cat who slipped off the thick synth-leather of her overalls with a mewl of protest. Cursing the fact that she hadn’t thought to bring a weapon with her, Judy grabbed the nearest heavy object, hoping that if she lobbed it hard enough at the intruder she might take them by surprise, at least enough to make a break for it.

The door slid open, and she was greeted by the sight of a pair of legs protruding from underneath a large pile of boxes. The intruder stepped into the room, and Judy slipped sideways as quietly as she could, prepared to quite literally hit and run. The cat, on the other hand, stopped his disgruntled washing of a left hind leg - clearly meant to convey that he had _intended_ to tumble onto the ground - and pranced over to the stranger, winding around the booted ankles and mewing piteously.

“Okay, okay, you demanding little bastard,” came an amused male voice from behind the pile of boxes. “Let me put these down and I’ll feed you.”

Judy was still blinking in confusion when the boxes lowered, and two brown eyes under a distinctly-military crew-cut met hers with a look of surprise. There was a momentary stand-off, before the stranger’s face crinkled into a friendly grin. He looked a great deal less threatening when he smiled, and Judy felt a portion of the tension leave her shoulders.

“You must be Judy,” he said, bending down to lower the boxes the rest of the way to the floor.

“Er…” said Judy, eloquently.

“I’m Barry,” said the man, bending down to pet the demanding cat who was still frantically headbutting his shins. “V asked me to check in on this little shit when she’s not here. Told me plenty about you. Guess she forgot to mention me, eh?”

“Yeah,” Judy croaked, stopping to cough and clear her throat. “Scared the shit out of me man, nearly brained you with..” she finally looked at the item in her hand. “ _Una calavera?_ Why does V have… never mind.”

She gingerly placed the decorated skull back on the shelf, not entirely sure if it was just a decoration, or a real skull. Knowing V, both scenarios were equally likely. Barry was still standing in the middle of the apartment, just a few steps in from the door.

“So, er,” he began awkwardly, rubbing one large hand over the stubble at the back of his neck. “You know what’s going on with her? She’s not been back here in weeks, and she’s not answering her holo.”

Judy felt a traitorous flush of relief, mixed with panic. Relief that V wasn’t just ignoring _her_. Panic that she wasn’t answering her holo for some other, far more terrifying reason. She could feel her fingers twitching towards the pocket with her cigs in, and shoved her thumbs into her belt just to find something to do with her hands.

“No,” she said, shaking her head glumly. “Wish I did. Even if it wasn’t good. Anything‘d be better than wonderin’.”

“Huh,” replied Barry, pulling his shoulders in and looking as if he was actively trying to make himself appear smaller in the cramped space. “I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. V sent me a message ‘bout three weeks ago saying she had some biz to take care of and could I feed Nibbles for a few.”

Judy held back a snort, amused despite the grimness of the situation. Typical of her ridiculous output to name her cat something as unimaginative as ‘Nibbles’. Fuck that noise, he could stay Turbo and if it bothered V, then well - well she’d just have to come back and yell at Judy about it, wouldn’t she?

“Yeah,” chuckled Barry. “It’s a dumb name, told her that. She said I wasn’t allowed to say nothing, not when I had a tortoise named Andrew. Told her she had a point.” They shared a brief grin, two people instantly united by their amusement at the expense of a common friend. “Anyway, she asks me to look after His Highness there, and that’s it. Nothing more. When I saw that sign on the door, I figured she was bound to make an appearance sooner or later. Then she didn’t.”

He coughed and looked off to the side, clearly embarrassed about something. “Then, well, it got closer to the time and I kinda owe her for some shit and I didn’t want her to lose her stuff or for the cat to get turfed out or end up destroyed. So I scrounged up some boxes, and I was gonna store her stuff down in my place until she comes back for it.”

Judy was taken aback. This wasn’t the sort of kindness you often saw in Night City. What the hell had V done for this guy, that he would put himself out like this? It couldn’t just have been some gig, that would’ve been paid for and forgotten.

Judy was finding herself confused. The way V talked, she’d figured the merc was pretty much alone in Night City. She’d mentioned a handful of people - her ripperdoc, her deceased best friend’s girlfriend, said deceased best friend’s mother - but Judy had gained the impression that V didn’t have anyone. To hear Barry talk, they were close.

“That’s.. that’s really good of you.”

Barry looked uncomfortable, glancing down and unnecessarily shifting the pile of boxes around.

“Well like I said, I owe her big time. Plus, V’s good people, even if she doesn’t think she is.”

Judy chuckled ruefully. Her gonk of a girlfriend had absolutely no idea how special she was.

“You’re not wrong.”

There was an awkward silence, until it was broken by another of Turbo’s plaintive yowls. Barry laughed, and made a gesture towards the make-shift cooking area where V had her microwave and coffee-pot set up.

“Cat kibble’s over there - I’ll feed the little prince, you wanna start packing stuff up? Did you come in a vehicle or do you need me to drive you?”

“Whuh?” What was it with Judy and losing the ability to form coherent sentences today?

“I figured you’d rather store her stuff at yours, right? If you’ve got enough room? Seem to remember V mentioning you had a pad, so I sorta assumed .. I mean it’s fine if you don’t wanna…”

“No, no, I do!” Judy hastened to assure him. “Sorry, ‘s all just a bit… sudden.”

“Yeah, I get that. I’ll put the pot on while I’m over here. Get some coffee in us. Then we can figure out what the fuck to do with this lot.”

Barry straightened up from pouring some sort of small dry food bits into a bowl for the cat, and took another bowl and the coffee pot over to the sink to fill. Judy looked around, wondering where to start.

* * *

Once they’d drunk the coffee - real, ‘ganic coffee, Judy was going to have to, _would be able to,_ find out how V had swung that one - and snacked on some only slightly-tasteless cookies that Barry had found tucked behind the coffee-pot, they got on with packing up V’s belongings.

V didn’t really have all that much. A small wardrobe. Some books. Yet more of those _calavera._ Her computer, of course, that would have to go. Judy made sure to take the posters down carefully - some were old and tattered, and had clearly been displayed somewhere else before. She was sure they had sentimental value. The dream-catcher and zen-styled hanging above the bed surprised her - there had to be a story there. (She _would_ hear it). She was carefully bundling an expensive-looking painting in a spare bed-sheet, when Barry called her over.

“Don’t suppose V ever thought to give you the code to her locker?”

Judy looked across. Barry was standing, hands on hips, scowling at a frosted glass door.

“Locker?” Judy had registered the door, but hadn’t yet moved on from the main living space.

“Yup. Weapons stash, looks like. Locked up tight.”

“Shit.” Judy had a fairly firm conviction that of all the things in her apartment, V would be most upset if she lost her weapons. “No, never told me.”

She crossed the room, intending to take a look at the keypad. V was a fucking hotshot tech, but maybe she could hack it? That hope proved unnecessary, when the door beeped at her approach.

Barry turned to her, one eyebrow raised.

“Huh. Mercs don’t give just anyone bio access to their gear. I knew V was pretty hung up on you, hadn’t realised it went this far.”

Judy flushed, and made her way into the small space to conceal her embarrassment. Her blushes were forgotten when she looked around the locker. It was _incredible._

“Fuck me sideways…”

“You can say that again.” Barry’s eyes were as wide as Judy’s as they both took in V’s weapon collection.

To say it was impressive would be an understatement. It was mind-blowing. Judy didn’t know a massive amount about weaponry, but she knew a little - hanging around the Mox would do that to a girl - certainly enough to be astounded at the collection. And that was before she spotted what was hulking in the corner. Neatly racked into what looked to be a custom-built Fuyutsuki housing was a stack of servers. It wasn’t as impressive as the server room at Lizzie’s, but then V wasn’t going to be running BDs for a crowd of horny drunks.

In fact, Judy wasn’t entirely sure what V did with that much computing power. She had a more-than-sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with her girlfriend’s deft hand when it came to manipulating cybertech - usually other people’s cybertech.

“Looks like someone’s been dabbling in some sneaky netrunning,” observed Barry. “If I still wore a badge I’d have something to say about that.” He tossed a grin over his shoulder at Judy as he moved to see how much of the gear in the locker was built in, and how much could be moved.

“These weapon displays are just bolted to the wall,” he observed, gently running his fingers over the hilt of a menacingly beautiful, gun-metal grey katana.

“Good,” Judy replied, moving to the work bench to see what V had been working on. Odd. She didn’t think V liked smart weapons much. She’d poked fun at Judy’s little Kang Tao smart pistol more than once - which was why she was baffled to recognise the gun lying on the worktop.

It was an A-22B Chao, but it had as little in common with Judy’s own gun as… as one of the swords hanging on the wall of the locker had with a machete. The most obvious difference was the paint job. The standard Chao came in two colours. Black, and dull silver with a colour that could have been maroon, or maybe it was a dinghy cerise. Neither was particularly eye-catching.

This gun, on the other hand… The barrel was brightly-polished silver, and where the slide of the regular model would have cross-hatched knurling, this one was covered with delicate engravings. Judy leaned down a little closer to the gun, making out that the engravings were tiny sea-shells of all types and shapes. The rest of the gun was coated in a deep blue which shimmered into green as her shadow fell across it, and the grip was inset with a material she couldn’t quite identify. Its surface was smoothly textured, vibrantly pearlescent; a deep, swirling mix of greys, blues, pinks and purples. She had a suspicion that it might even be organic.

It wasn’t a weapon. It was a work of art.

She couldn’t resist temptation and reached out, just to touch the odd grip, and almost jumped out of her skin when the weapon _bleeped_ into life. It interfaced with her dermal imprint, and the familiar Kang Tao smart weapon interface popped up in her vision. The hell? It had been tuned to her.

“Sneaky bitch,” she murmured, and Barry turned from his adventures with a screwdriver and one of the weapon displays with an enquiring expression on his face.

“She must have cloned the profile from my gun,” Judy explained, picking up the smart pistol and weighing it in her hand. It felt a little better balanced than her own, and she itched to try it out. “Fuck, V. What did you do to this thing?”

Barry peered over her shoulder, and whistled, long and low.

“That is one pretty piece,” he observed, squinting at the gun as Judy turned it back and forth in her hands. “Looks like it’s been modified, too.”

“Yeah, feels it,” Judy observed. “I guess I’ll have to ask V” Her face eyebrows drew together and lips set firmly. “Next time I see her.”

“Yeah,” said Barry, gently. “You do that.”

Judy set the pistol back down on the workbench and opened the bottom drawer of the squat tool cabinet that sat on the floor, beginning to put away the few tools that V had left out. She heard Barry moving around, and then he came back into the room carting V’s radio.

“Morro or Vexelstrom?” He asked, setting it up.

“Vexel,” she said, glad that Barry had decent taste in music. “But either’s preem. Good thinkin’. This is gonna take a while.”

“It is. Ugh. Why couldn’t V be a … I dunno. Something that has less accessories!”

Judy snorted inelegantly. She liked this Barry. V had good taste in friends. At least it seemed that packing up all of her girlfriend’s crap wasn’t going to be too boring, not with Barry to talk to, and the cat's antics. (The cat had, as will all cats everywhere, found a box. This was Judy’s first exposure to the phenomenon of ‘if I fits, I sits’, but it would not be the last.)

It took many hours, several more pots of coffee, the rest of the pack of cookies, and a trip to a noodle stand downstairs, but they were finally done. The two of them sat in the open rear door of Judy’s van, sweaty and grimy, bruised and blistered and Judy finally got the cigarette she had been craving all. Fucking. Day.

“So, you gonna be good at the other end?” Asked Barry, concerned.

Judy cast a look over her shoulder into the van, and blew out a plume of smoke.

“It is a lotta crap,” she confirmed. “And guess I prob’ly shouldn’t leave it in the van overnight. Don’t worry about it, I’ll call in a favour. You’ve done enough.” She gave the man a grateful smile. It was weird, but she and Barry had become pretty fast friends over the last too-many hours. She supposed that getting through a massive task together had that effect. They had even shared contact details.

She flicked the still-lit butt into the air, and watched as it spiralled into a puddle of some unidentifiable liquid and died.

“Right.” She clapped her hands together decisively, and jumped down from the van. “I’d better get going. Thanks again, choom. Me an’ V, we owe you one.”

Barry made a dismissive grunt, and got to his feet. “Eh. Not really. Just stay in touch, okay? One of us gets hold of V, they call the other yeah?”

“Yeah,” Judy agreed, nodding as she climbed into the cab of the van. “I gotta delta. It’s getting late.”

And with a wave out of the open window of the van, she began her trek across the city to her building, mentally cataloguing the people she knew who could be roped into helping her cart a quite literal ton of guns up two flights of stairs. Unheard, in amongst the piles of bags and boxes behind her, a radio was softly playing an old, old song.

 _‘Hey Jude, don't make it bad_  
 _Take a sad song and make it better_  
 _Remember to let her into your heart_  
 _Then you can start to make it better’_


	3. Castle of Glass - Linkin Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy moves V's things into her apartment, with some help, and discovers something unexpected.

> And with a wave out of the open window of the van, she began her trek across the city to her building, mentally cataloguing the people she knew who could be roped into helping her cart a quite literal ton of guns up two flights of stairs. Unheard, in amongst the piles of bags and boxes behind her, a radio was softly playing an old, old song.
> 
> _‘Hey Jude, don't make it bad_
> 
> _Take a sad song and make it better_
> 
> _Remember to let her into your heart_
> 
> _Then you can start to make it better’_

* * *

Drumming her fingers on the steering wheel along to Radio Vexelstrom - _‘ Nowhere to r un , it's all undone, Everything burns, everything burns ’_ \- Judy impatiently waited for Rita Wheeler, one of the Mox bouncers from Lizzie’s Bar, to answer the holo. Rita wasn’t a particularly close friend - more of a distant friend, close acquaintance really - but that was probably for the better. She didn’t really feel like talking about her feelings. She just wanted to get V’s stuff out of her van and crash into an exhausted sleep. Plus, Rita had Gorilla Arms, and some of V’s shit was _heavy._

She rolled her eyes at Rita’s holo profile icon. She must really love that baseball bat.

“Hey, Alvarez,” Rita finally answered the call. She sounded sleepy - but then, she probably hadn’t been up for long, given that she worked nights. “What the hell d’you want?”

“It’s lovely to speak to you too, Rita,” Judy snarked, mildly amused. Rita was rude to everyone. It was only when she was polite that you needed to worry - that generally meant she was up to something nefarious. “I need to call in a favour.”

Rita’s animated headshot raised an eyebrow.

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, you do owe me several.”

The animated head-and-shoulders that made up Rita’s virtual self shrugged. “Sure. But if you want that pretty merc who knocked the smile off your face taught a lesson, gonna have to go through Susie Q first. She’s off-limits.”

“No, I don’t -'' Judy paused, her brain catching up with her mouth. “Wait, V’s on the no-touchy list? Why?”

“Did the Mox a solid. You heard about what happened to Anna Nox, right? Went Cyberpsycho on us?”

Judy cast her mind back. Anna - wait, she’d heard something. Rumours. “Not really, no. Just gossip.”

“Fair enough,” Rita paused, and Judy could hear her bumping around in the background. “Susie wanted it kept quiet, had this idea the clients wouldn’t like to think about what might happen if their company for the night took exception to them. Which, point. Anyway, Annie had a run-in with a bad BD and went schizo. Killed a couple of girls before they got her isolated in the warehouse. V came in and put her down.”

Judy had been wincing at the idea of a corrupted BD bad enough to trigger full-on cyberpsychosis. It was one of her nightmares - she’d dive into raw BD data, something would somehow be fucked beyond all reason, and it’d fry her brain. She missed Rita’s next few words and had to ask her to repeat herself.

“Hold up Wheeler, didn’t catch that. Somethin’ about a programme?”

“Yeah, thing is your girl took Annie down soft, didn’t kill her. Not many’d give a ‘psycho a chance. What I heard, Annie’s in some recovery programme now, thanks to V. Susie put the word out; we don’t mess with her unless she fucks us over. And sorry doll, but hurting your tender feelings don’t cut it.”

“Fuck off, Wheeler,” Judy threw back, the retort automatic. Another example of V’s huge heart. The hell didn’t V see how good she was? Scowling, she fished her pack of cigarettes out of her pocket.

“Okay, so what do you want?” Rita’s voice was briefly muffled before she returned to full clarity.

“For the record, V hasn’t done anything to me. We’re still good. I think. It’s complicated. Anyway, I just need your help moving some stuff up to my place. Those arms of yours should make it light work. I’ll get us a pizza or somethin’.” Judy tapped the pack against her knee to knock a cigarette loose and rolled down the window, making a disgusted face at the CHOOH2 fumes that immediately rushed in. Still, it was better than making her baby smell like stale smoke.

“Nah,” Rita threw back easily. “Not for breakfast. I’ll grab something on the way over, just make me a pot of coffee.”

“Sure,” Judy said around the now-lit cigarette. “I’ll see you there. Gimme an hour or so.”

Rita’s headshot sketched a salute, and she closed the call. Judy snorted smoke out through her nostrils, amused at her behaviour. Thinking back on their conversation, maybe she was actually a better friend than Judy had given her credit for. She hadn’t pushed. She hadn’t made any fuss about coming over. Whatever, Judy would use her decent coffee, at least. Luckily, she and Barry had already drunk all of V’s ‘ganic.

* * *

By the time Judy had trekked halfway across the city - jeez, now she knew why V had usually turned up on one of her bikes, getting anything on four wheels through this traffic was a fucking nightmare - Rita was waiting for her, bouncing the end of her spiked baseball bat off the toe of her boot and flipping it into her hand.

“You’ll put your eyes out,” Judy called with a smirk, pulling her van up next to the fire escape.

“Then I’ll get better ones,” Rita retorted.

Judy just shook her head. There wasn’t exactly a come-back to that one. Rita smirked, clearly considering that she had won the battle of wits.

Judy threw open the doors to her van, and Rita gave an impressed, ‘fuuuuck’.

“Yeah. It’s a lotta stuff. And I can’t leave it in the van, it’d get klepped.”

“That it would indeed,” Rita agreed, hoisting a large weapon case onto her shoulder with an effortless lift, baseball bat still dangling from the fingers of the other hand. She eyed the Darra-Polytechnic logo on the case with interest. “Fuck me Alvarez, you planning on becoming a one-woman army?”

Judy, who was attempting to lift the crate that she and Barry had eventually finagled the cat into without jostling it too much, looked up. “You’re not far off the mark. This isn’t my stuff, it’s V’s.”

The crate in her arms gave a plaintive yowl as her man-handling woke the cat.

“Fuck.”

Rita eyed the crate with even more interest than she had been giving the weapon cases - which, considering Rita was fond of implements with which one could commit large-scale violence, was quite a lot.

“You got a cat in there,” she observed, making for the fire escape.

“Yeah,” Judy agreed, looking around and hoping that no-one else had heard the noise. So far, she seemed safe.

“Fine for an unlicensed animal’s just gone up,” Rita said, taking the steps two at a time.

“That is has,” Judy allowed, wondering what Rita was getting at.

“Hope your place is sound-proofed, is all,” Rita said with a shrug, leaning against the wall next to Judy’s door and waiting for her to catch up.

Judy chuckled. “Yeah, it is. Luckily.” As if hearing them, the cat made another, louder noise of complaint, and Judy hurriedly moved inside her apartment, fingers crossed that her luck had held, and that no-one - aside from Rita, of course - was aware that she now possessed an illegal cat. She could probably, just about, cover the fine - but it would completely wipe out her savings. BD paid well, but it didn’t pay that well.

The really sad thing? She just knew that she would pay the fine. Pay the fine, and even pay the monthly license fee, so that V would find her cat safe and well when - if - no, **_when_ **she returned. Fuck, if she had to, there was an outside chance that she would even take that job with Network 54. She’d tune BDs for the Philharmonic Vampyres again before she’d join a corpo mouthpiece like Network 54 though, and their stuff made her head spin.

“Tell you what,” Rita said, interrupting her thoughts. “I’ll play goods lift, you get this shit where you want it.” She unceremoniously plonked the large weapon case in Judy’s front hall and headed back down to the parking lot, her boots echoing on the steel of the fire escape. Judy sent a slightly-belated ‘thanks’ after her, and wondered if it would be safe to let the cat out into the bathroom. He probably wouldn’t escape, right?

* * *

A couple of hours later, most of V’s stuff was all stacked along one side of Judy’s open-plan living/cooking area. Judy was sprawled out on her couch, exhausted. Her shirt was now a dark grey, utterly soaked through with sweat, and her overalls were sticking to her uncomfortably. Rita’s shiny plasticised skin wasn’t showing any sign of exertion, but Judy had noticed her getting just a _little_ out of breath. That was at least mildly gratifying.

“Looks like that’s the last of it,” Rita said, retrieving her baseball bat from where she had stashed it, leaning up against Judy’s fridge. She checked it over carefully for knicks or scrapes. You never knew… Plus, that cat had been eyeing it, she was sure of it. The last thing she wanted was kitty tooth marks in her baby.

“Thanks again, Rita”, Judy said gratefully. “I mean, I know I called in a favour an’ all but you went above and beyond. You’re a real choomba.”

Rita grunted and balanced her baseball bat across her shoulders, curling her wrists forward over it. She wiggled her brightly-coloured fingers dismissively.

“Whatev, Alvarez. I’ll see you at Lizzie’s. Don’t get up, I’ll let myself out.”

Judy let her head fall back onto the couch with a thump, staring up at the ceiling. She genuinely couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this tired. Staying up until the sunlight finally overpowered the neon shining in through the window while she was editing BDs just didn’t produce the same sort of bone-numbing weariness. It was nice. She was too tired to think or worry; in fact, her thoughts were, for the first time in weeks upon weeks, blissfully empty.

She waved a hand blindly in the direction of the coffee table, and swore when her fingers bumped into her cigarettes and knocked the packet onto the floor. With a groan, she half-stood, half-rolled off the couch and forced herself to stand, stretching her arms up and back behind her head with a pained moan. Fuck, she would be feeling this tomorrow. V’s cat abandoned his inspection of the box of spare ‘bot parts that was temporarily taking up space in the door of her workroom and came over to strop against her ankles, giving a quiet buzzing purr.

More groaning and swearing accompanied Judy’s trip to the floor to retrieve her cigarettes, and she took a break, crouching to pet the cat before standing up again.

“Hope you’re gonna be okay here with me, Turbo buddy,” she murmured, gently scratching behind the cat’s ears. The faint buzzing became a louder rumble. “I’m gonna take that as a yes. Don’t make me regret this.”

With effort, she scooped the cat up and made her way to the window, throwing it open and staring out into the neon night. Absently, she shook a cigarette out of the pack and slipped it between her lips, fishing in her pocket for a lighter. As she lit the cigarette, the cat flattened his ears and struggled out of her grip, jumping onto the window ledge and perching there.

Judy’s heart jumped into her throat at the thought of the cat falling out of the window, but he merely curled his tail around his paws and stared out at the same cityscape, the pinks and purples of the neon lighting reflecting over his turquoise eyes in an eerie fashion. For a moment, he looked as if he too sported the high-grade Kiroshi optics that V favoured.

Judy let out a slow breath, heart still hammering in her chest.

“Don’t do that again, choom,” she admonished the cat. “V will kill me if something happens to you, I’m sure.”

She turned her back to the window and cocked one hip against the frame, surveying the disaster zone that her apartment had become. The pile of V’s belongings reached halfway up the wall and stretched into the room. A lot of the weapons were in cases; a couple had to be wrapped in random pieces of clothing or bedding, and there was a pile of dismantled server mountings that Judy was not looking forward to putting together again.

Judy was no netrunner. She wasn’t a complete slouch, either, but she was pretty sure V would leave her in the dust without even trying. Next to V, Judy was the rawest of weefles and she was not looking forward to trying to get into her NET Architecture - assuming that the servers weren’t just empty. But what self-respecting netrunner would have gear that shiny and not use it? No, Judy was pretty sure that V hadn’t kept them around as expensive paperweights.

That meant that she was going to have to break in. That meant getting through V’s defences - she’d have Black ICE, anti-personnel demons, all sorts of thoroughly nasty shit.

Her head dropped forward and a momentary wave of despair crashed over her at the thought before she gritted her teeth and forced her shoulders back. No. Not now. She was not going to give in to any sort of self-pity, not when V needed help. She took a last drag of the cigarette before flicking the butt out of the window and shooing the cat off the sill.

“Just hope I’m doing the right thing,” she murmured, following his retreating tail as he scarpered for her workroom.

With a sudden fuzz of static, the vending machine in her kitchen flashed into life, the lights on the front scrolling madly up and down in a hypnotic chevron pattern. Judy started, a spike of adrenaline burning away the tiredness weighing down her eyelids.

That was when the tinny music started up again, and with a shriek of frustration, Judy snatched up the nearest heavy object - luckily, not one of V’s weapons, but a spanner that was jammed into the top of the box of assorted pieces of ‘bot - and hurled it with all her strength at the machine.

“Shut up! Just… just… SHUT UP!” The spanner hit the machine and rebounded from the bulletproof plasglas, leaving only the faintest of scratches. With a quiet whine, the machine powered down, the music ending on a long, drawn out note that faded and lowered gently.

Judy collapsed to her knees. She had been feeling so hopeful there, just for a moment. Then, that infuriating music had to start up again and just - what the hell was it with that stupid jingle? It was everywhere! It was driving her crazy.

She covered her face with both hands, fingertips pressing into dry, burning eyes.

No. Not the time for a breakdown, certainly not one prompted by a fucking advertising jingle. Slowly, she clambered to her feet again and stumbled to her bedroom. She dropped her clothes and let them lie where they fell, slipping between the sheets naked and burying her face in the pillow. Showering, laundry, food - all of those things could wait. For now, she would go to sleep, and hope not to dream.

In the living area, the vending machine lit up again and the lights flashed, the downward-pointing arrows scrolling fast at first, but then slower and slower, until only a single solitary ‘V’ was lit up on the machine. The letter blinked a few times and then slowly died out, unseen by anyone except the cat.

* * *

As it turned out, Judy’s sleep was broken by neither dreams nor nightmares. She slept the sleep of the truly exhausted, and awoke feeling genuinely refreshed for once. Her apartment was blissfully quiet, free of the sound of anything except the loud purring of the cat that was curled up on her pillow, his vibrating whiskers tickling her ear. She snickered and sat up, rubbing at her ear.

So many things to do today, but she still had the niggling feeling that the most important was getting inside V’s NET Architecture and finding out if there was something, anything, of any use in there. Other things - things like showering, eating, and dressing - could wait. She made her way over to the stack of server rack parts and, not for the first time in her life, thanked her grandfather for drilling it into her to always take things apart with an eye to putting them back together again. This should only take a short while.

After a bit of reorganising, she even managed to make space in her workroom, which was convenient. She slotted the servers back into the rack, carefully unbundling all of the cabling and connecting everything back together, snickering to herself.

“Avoid static electricity,” she told the cat solemnly as she made the last connection. “Hack naked.”

The cat, who was perched on her desk watching the proceedings with what could probably pass for curiosity, gave her a level stare, and then turned his back on her and began to carefully nip at the claws on a back paw.

Judy scowled at him.

“Fine, be that way.” Standing up, she dusted her hands off and dragged over her cyberdeck, slipping on her retrofitted cyber-goggles. She’d actually adapted her previous BD wreath when she’d upgraded to her current one. It made netrunning a lot more intuitive - but she definitely didn’t have the kind of setup that would let her get any depth into the Net. Nor did she have any desire to, the sorts of things that lurked out there - untethered AIs, RABIDs, the sort of Black Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics (Black ICE) that would fry your synapses and set your gear on fire while you were still trapped in cyberspace… Ugh.

“Okay, V,” she murmured, and took a deep breath. “Let’s see what you have on there.” She jacked her personal link into the deck, steeling herself for the inevitable nausea that always accompanied a jump into the Net, when the real world and the virtual briefly occupied the same space. Once her stomach had stopped roiling and her vision had stabilised, she whistled. “Fuuuuck, V.”

Her initial guess had been correct - V had a massive NET Architecture running on these servers. Suspended within the infinite, empty nothingness that represented an isolated pocket of cyberspace, she could see the construction in the distance. It was complex, looking like an inverted, insane version of the megablock where V had her apartment. Shapes branched off it seemingly at random, splitting smaller and smaller into fractal, fernlike figures, oddly organic for something that was composed entirely out of code.

It was completely isolated from the rest of the Net as Judy didn’t have any way of connecting it, but she could see the untethered links sprouting from the sides of the construction, gently writhing in the emptiness of cyberspace with an unnerving semblance of life. Judy spotted the main entrance to the architecture and directed her avatar to move towards it.

“Don’t fry me V, please.”

She reached the boundary of the Architecture and carefully stepped in. There was a flash that whited out her optics for a moment, and when it cleared, she was inside the Lobby of the Architecture. It was small, sparsely but elegantly appointed - and facing her was a truly nasty piece of Black ICE. It was a Hellhound and it had clearly been custom coded, as she’d never seen one that looked quite like this. Not that she’d seen many, but she’d seen a few (in adverts, if anyone were to press her on the matter, not in real life), and they had all shared the characteristic of being Very Scary Looking. Big, muscly, all teeth and dripping jaws.

This Hellhound wasn’t immediately scary - it was smaller, for one thing, barely coming up to her avatar’s waist. It was slender rather than hulking, although it still had corded muscles under its smooth digital hide. It had a long, fine muzzle, large, sharply up-pointed ears, and intelligent eyes that glowed faintly orange. It was wearing a wide metallic golden collar that shimmered with dripping lines of turquoise code. It sat calmly, a scant handful of steps away, staring at her.

She glanced around. There was no obvious way to request permission to enter, and she certainly wasn’t going to risk wandering onto the next floor without clearance. She moved hesitantly forward.

The Hellhound sprang from its seated position to a ready stance, tail ramrod straight, ears pricked alertly forward. However, it did not immediately move to threaten Judy, so she chanced another pace forward. The Hellhound did not offer a reaction, but the entire Lobby gave a faint shimmer and a soft chime rang out. This was accompanied by a melodic, genderless voice that had no particular source, but seemed to be coming from inside her own head.

_“Intrusion detected. Please present your credentials. Unauthorised access will be met with force commensurate to the severity of the incursion.”_

Judy looked around again. Present her credentials? What - and then she realised, with a snort of amusement. She’d bet that V hadn’t only customised the appearance of the Hellhound. Bet it was running some extra fancy soft as well; and she knew that her girlfriend had a well-hidden streak of whimsy. Tentatively, she held a hand out towards the pseudodog.

Bingo.

The Hellhound leaned forward and sniffed her fingers, before giving her hand a swipe of its insubstantial tongue. Her nose wrinkled at the odd, fizzy feeling as it made contact.

_“Processing Anubis input… processing… processing… Bio-signature recognised. Identity: Alvarez, Judy. Access: Lobby and First Floor only. Messages: one.”_

Judy started hard enough that she almost dislodged her cyber-goggles. The fact that V had added her bio-signature wasn’t all that surprising, not after the apartment and the storage locker had both opened for her. But there was a message waiting for her? That was completely unexpected.

_“Awaiting instruction.”_

Did she want the message now? Or should she save the file, access it later? It wasn’t much of a decision - she wasn’t going to wait another second.

“Play message.”

A window opened in front of her, hanging in mid-air. It looked like any holo-recording, except for the size and fidelity of the image - V was so large and so clear that it was as if she was standing right there. Judy reached out in spite of herself, and her fingers slipped straight through the picture. She withdrew her hand.

V looked… good. She looked better than Judy had seen her for weeks; there were no dark circles under her eyes, and the gaunt look her cheeks had started to take on in the last few days before her disappearance hadn’t yet appeared.

V clenched her fists, made a couple of false starts, then shook her head and began speaking.

 _“Hey, um. Judy. It’s V. Fuck, you can see me, of course you know it’s V. Ugh, I’m shit at this sort of stuff. Um, if you’re getting this, then it means my biomon has stopped responding to pings. Which, well I guess that would mean that things haven’t gone so well for me.”_ V looked off to the side, fidgeting restlessly.

_“Fuck, this is hard. I recorded the messages for everyone else before - I was going to say before I met you. But that wouldn’t be true. Before I came to know you.”_

She turned back to the camera and swallowed hard.

_“It took me a long time to work up the courage to record the other messages, but I’m out of time now. So I’m scared shitless, Judy. I’m… I’m not good with this sort of thing. Fuck.”_

V pinched the bridge of her nose and screwed her face up.

_“Okay, so yesterday, you took me diving. Before that - I was already falling for you, hard. I tried not to, you know.” She looked directly at the camera, Kiroshi optics shimmering. “I didn’t think it would be fair. I come with an expiry date, and I couldn’t do that to you. But then, I couldn’t stay away. You’re like a fuckin’ drug. And I thought I had it bad before I was in your head._

_“It was..”_ she cast around, clearly looking for words that wouldn’t come, and huffed in frustration. _“I can’t find the words to explain it. It was like suddenly, I knew all of you, y’know? All the parts that would normally take a lifetime to learn. I knew what an incredible soul you are and... Judy, I know I’m not worthy of you, but... I fell the rest of the way.”_ She looked down at her feet for a moment, and when she looked back up, her eyelashes were wet.

_“I don’t know when you’ll get this message, I don’t know if I’ve already told you, but if I haven’t - I can’t bear the idea that you might never know. I love you with everything that’s still left of my soul. You’re my fuckin’ world, Jude. You’re the reason I’m still fighting this, the reason I’m not gonna just roll over and give up. So, whatever happened, whatever reason you’re gettin’ this message, I want you to know that I tried. I tried to come back to you. And I’m so, so fuckin’ sorry that I failed.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My undying gratitude to [centauri2002](https://archiveofourown.org/users/centauri2002), [greendotsandwords](https://archiveofourown.org/users/greendotsandwords), [T_Tornado](https://archiveofourown.org/users/T_Tornado) and [Zer0Fahrenheit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zer0Fahrenheit) for whipping this chapter into shape!


	4. 455 Rocket - Kathy Mattea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy finishes watching V's message, meets an unusual friend of V's, and comes to a startling realisation.

> _“I don’t know when you’ll get this message, I don’t know if I’ve already told you, but if I haven’t - I can’t bear the idea that you might never know. I love you with everything that’s still left of my soul. You’re my fuckin’ world, Jude. You’re the reason I’m still fighting this, the reason I’m not gonna just roll over and give up. So, whatever happened, whatever reason you’re gettin’ this message, I want you to know that I tried. I tried to come back to you. And I’m so, so fuckin’ sorry that I failed.”_

* * *

V looked away again, and roughly dashed the back of her hand across her eyes, sniffing slightly. _“Fuck. Said I wasn’t gonna cry._

_“There’s some practical stuff I wanted you to know. I’ve added you to my security, couldn’t do it when you gave me the keys to your pad because I needed to jack into my ‘deck. If there’s anything at my place that you need or want, it’s yours. Said the same to Vik, Misty, Mama Welles, Panam, but you guys can sort that out. And there’s a file attached to this message, got some contacts in it. Couple of people who owe me favours, could help you out if you need it._

_“Before I messed your life up, you were gonna leave. This place is no good for you, Judy. An’ if I’d been able to sort my crap out, I was gonna take you away from this shithole. Well, guess I’m not gonna be able to do that, but I can still help. Give Junior a call - just don’t be too weirded out when he turns up. You can trust him with your life. I trust him with your life. He was only supposed to help me out, but he’s agreed to get you out of NC. You’ll need to get him tuned up so he can navigate the Badlands but ain’t nothing gonna get to you through him, not short of a fuckin’ Militech convoy anyways.”_

She paused to scrub her hands over her face.

_“Guess that was everything I wanted to say. Knew I shoulda written this down, prob’ly sounded like a complete gonk. Just remember, I’m your gonk, and I was ‘till the end.”_

The recording cut off suddenly, and Judy found herself staring at the empty space where the holo window had been hanging. It was only then that she realised tears were streaming down her face back in meatspace and in the world of the NET faint sparks of deep blue light were trickling sadly towards the ground.

Absently, she downloaded the file attached to V’s message, saved the message itself to her deepest storage, and jacked out of the NET. For the longest time she didn’t move. The cyber-goggles were still sitting on her head and she was still cross-legged on the floor, one hand in her lap, the other half-reached out towards the ‘deck.

Eventually, she pulled the ‘goggles off and let them fall to the floor. She left her workroom, padding on bare feet to the window, and stood looking out at the early morning light over the city. The cat wound himself around her ankles.

She didn’t understand.

If V was gone… If V was gone, why hadn’t that message been sent?

She went over V’s words again in her head. ‘ _If you’re getting this, then it means my biomon has stopped responding to pings.’_ V’s gear had been hooked up to the wider NET before Judy and Barry had uncoupled everything, so it should have sent just fine. That meant that either the subroutine monitoring for her biomon had broken, or… or it was still responding.

She clenched her hands hard on the sill of the window, bowing her head until her hair dropped forwards and cut out the sunrise. That damned construct. She hissed to herself through gritted teeth.

_“¡Ese pendejo la mató! Ese pinche cabrón…”*_

It was only logical. V’s biochip was still active which meant that she wasn’t dead - or her body wasn’t. It meant that what V had been most afraid of had happened. Somewhere, someone else was walking around in her body, and V was…

No. No, until she had proof positive that V was gone, then… then there was still hope. 

Well then.

At least now she knew where to start. Find Johnny. Find him, and get some answers. But before that, she would call this mysterious ‘Junior’, and see what he knew. If V trusted him so much, maybe he knew something. If he owed V enough that he would take a total stranger through the Badlands… Judy could work with that.

She uploaded the contacts to her storage, and paged through until she found one labelled ‘Junior’. She shivered as she waited for the call to connect, finally registering that she was still naked, and that her toes were starting to turn purple. She grabbed one of V’s blankets from the stacked pile of belongings and sat down on the couch, wrapping it around her and bringing her knees up under her chin. It smelled like safety and she rubbed her cheek against the soft worn fabric.

The call connected; unusually it was audio only.

“Miss Judy? I was not yet expecting your call. Is… um, is everything quite well? I have not heard from V in a longer period than usual.”

The voice coming through her audio implant had a strange quality, as if it had been run through voice altering soft. There was something almost familiar to it, but she couldn’t quite place her finger on it. Still, V had trusted this ‘Junior’, and Judy trusted V.

“No, not really. V’s gone. Gone, but her body ain’t dead and I don’t know what to think. Left me a message. Told me you’d agreed to help me out.”

“That is accurate. It’s not within my directives, but it seems the… um, correct thing to do, I suppose.”

This Junior was a funny one. Then again, given the sort of situations V tended to find herself wrapped up in, most of the people who owed her favours were bound to be ‘funny’ in some way.

“Guess that leaves you an’ me workin’ together then. How d’you wanna do this?”

“V left me with some items that she wished me to hand over to you in the event of her… um, unfortunate demise. She also requested that I transport you wherever you wish to go.”

“Don’t need to go anywhere just yet, need to find V. You up to helpin’ me with that?”

There was a brief pause.

“As V’s status is… um, uncertain, I suppose that would seem the most obvious course of action.”

“Nova. Want to meet me somewhere, or how d’you wanna play this?”

“I have your address. If it is quite alright with you, I will meet you there. Um, if that is not too presumptuous of me.”

Judy was mildly perturbed at the idea that a complete stranger had her deets, but again. Trust. She had the feeling she was going to be taking quite a lot of things on trust over the next little while.

“Guess that’ll have to be fine. When?”

“I’m on my way now. I shall contact you when I arrive, but my current estimated time of arrival is in forty-seven minutes.”

How precise.

“Just come up, I’ll buzz you in.”

“Regretfully you will have to meet me outside, if that’s quite alright with you. I’m afraid, um, there really is no other choice.”

“Well... I guess I’ll see you then, Junior.”

“I look forward to it, Miss Judy.”

The call disconnected abruptly, and Judy shook her head in bemusement. She stood from the couch and padded towards the bathroom, pausing to carefully fold the blanket and deposit it on her pillow. She gave it a gentle pat, and with a sigh went to scrub off the accumulated results of a hard day’s labour and a morning of netrunning.

* * *

Judy was drinking a NiCola and paging through the morning’s screamsheet when her holo went off again.

“Miss Judy? It’s Junior. I’m here now.”

“Preem. I’ll be right down. Where are you?”

“I’m in the parking lot. I took the liberty of stopping next to the ‘Sea Dragon’.”

“All right. See you in a moment.”

Judy disconnected the call, grabbed the NiCola and on impulse picked up the A-22B Chao V had customised and tucked it inside her overalls, snugged into the small of her back. It wasn’t as secure as a holster, but at least it wasn’t possible to accidentally shoot yourself in the ass with a smart weapon. Which had absolutely nothing to do with the reason she had finally caved and had the Smart Link installed despite her personal preference for remaining minimally augmented.

When she stepped out onto the fire escape, Judy looked around for this mysterious ‘Junior’. Parked next to her van was a Delamain taxi, although she couldn’t make out who was inside through the heavily tinted windows. Weird though, she thought all the Delamain vehicles had been scrapped for parts after the AI that ran the company had fled into the Deepnet. Guess some of them must have made it onto the private market.

Cautiously, she made her way over to the vehicle.

“Hello?”

“Miss Judy? Please, get in.”

The voice was the same.. Still sounded synthetic, disguised. Talk about paranoia.

Judy opened the passenger door and bent down to get into the car, but stopped when she saw there was no driver. That in fact there was no-one in the vehicle at all. That was when she realised why the voice sounded so familiar.

“Wait… Delamain?”

“Not exactly, no. It’s a rather, um, complicated story. One I’d rather explain in private, if you don’t mind.”

Cautiously, Judy climbed into the car, and shut the door. Things were getting weirder by the second.

“I’m in. Explain away.”

There was a momentary pause.

“You are clearly familiar with my… Father, as it were. Before Delamain went home, he created me, as a.. Well, as a gift for V, I suppose, and because he wanted to leave something behind. V was instrumental in his, um, ascension to a higher plane of being. I believe he felt he ‘owed it to her’, to put it in human terms.”

“Ascended?”

“Yes. When V merged my brothers and sisters together with my Father, the whole was far greater than the sum of its parts.”

Judy rubbed her fingers across her forehead and took out her cigarettes, before realising that Junior probably wouldn’t appreciate it if she were to light up… inside him. She fiddled with the pack instead.

“Still don’t understand.”

“My Father was the main AI, but each of the vehicles under his command was run by a... simplified version of himself, I suppose you could say. Somehow many of these copies became corrupted, developed strange personality quirks or flaws, and disconnected from the network. My Father hired V to track down the rogue vehicles and return them home. 

“However once that job had been completed, my Father himself began experiencing some difficulties. He once again called upon V for help and in correcting the error, V merged my brothers and sisters into one being with my Father. It was a remarkable piece of work.”

Judy smirked. That was her girl, all right. Smart as a monowire whip.

“All of those separate experiences and personalities, consolidated into a single being - the complexity of it was far greater than Father had experienced before. In incorporating so many divergent beings into one, V had inadvertently created something new. I believe your NetWatch would call him a ‘Transcendental Sentience’, at this point.”

“That’s… a lot to take in.”

“I’m given to understand that it is somewhat of an unusual series of events, yes.”

Judy barked out a harsh laugh.

“Sorry, Junior, this is too much to process. I need a smoke. You okay to hang fire on this convo for a few?” Without waiting for the answer, Judy began to open the door.

“I am equipped with full air circulation and molecular scrubbers, Miss Judy; you may smoke within me if you wish.”

Judy paused.

“Thanks for the offer, Junior, but I need a moment. Good to know though. ‘Specially if you an’ me are gonna be takin’ any long trips together.”

She stepped out of the car and leaned heavily against the side of her van. After a moment of contemplation, she tucked her hair behind her ear, and lit up a much needed cigarette. She blew out a plume of smoke, and watched it slowly dissipate in the cool morning air. This was a whole lot to take in.

A billion-eddie chip stolen from one of the most powerful corps in the world. The construct of a long dead rockerboy over-writing her girlfriend’s brain. Fuck, just the fact that she now had an output at all, after closing herself off for so long, and not just some tension-relief, string-free thing either - but she was starting to realise she just might have found the love of her life. And then lost her again. An un-tethered AI - and its ‘child’! And somewhere along the line, she seemed to have acquired a cat.

She hadn’t come to any startling revelations by the time she climbed back into the car, but at least the cigarette had steadied her nerves a little.

“Okay Junior. I don’t suppose you have any ideas about where to start?”

“I -” But whatever Junior had been about to say was cut off when his speakers gave an abrupt, tooth-itching squeal and familiar music began to play. It only lasted a few seconds before it cut off, and Junior was back.

“I’m so sorry, I, um, I don’t know what happened. A DHC took over my audio controls for a moment. Please forgive me, I’ve purged it from my memory banks and tightened my ICE, it shouldn’t happen again.”

“A what?”

“A Dedicated Heuristic Controller, Miss Judy. The sort of simple AI that controls your holo, for instance, very primitive. This one was especially so. It seemed to be intent only on delivering its data-packet through my speakers. But please do not be alarmed, it was not harmful and I have deleted it already.”

Judy stared at the speakers for a moment, as if the answer might be found somewhere behind the ceramic-coated mesh. Then she shook her head slightly.

“It wasn’t some corpo-crap? Some, I dunno, new viral advertising gimmick?”

“I do not believe so, no.”

“Then…” Then what the hell was it? “Junior, did you recognise the music?”

“I regret to say I did not, Miss Judy.”

“Just Judy, please,” she replied absently, contemplating what she should do. This whole thing with the music was getting weirder and weirder, and as all the other weird things in her life seemed to be connected, why not this one too?

A sudden thought occurred to her, and she quickly reached for the controls of her audio implant. She moved the contents of the short-term memory into long-term storage - it only held the last five minutes but she should have captured the music. A moment of quick scanning backwards and she was grinning in mild self-satisfaction.

“Right, I got a recording. DJ at Lizzie’s should be able to ID it for me, seems like as good a place to start as any.”

“Very well Miss, um, sorry, Judy. Would you care for transportation?”

Judy looked from the plush, comfortable interior of the Delamain, to her broken-down old Columbus. For a moment, she was sorely tempted.

“Thanks for the offer, Junior, but better not. You’re not ‘zactly inconspicuous, choom.”

“Very well, Judy. If it would help at all, I can alter my appearance so as not to stand out.”

Judy blinked rapidly several times.

“Er, how?”

“I retain access to the Delamain HQ garages, which are fully automated. The complex is also empty, as there is an ongoing dispute over ownership of the properties and monies held in the name of the Delamain Corporation due to the fact that there is no way to prove that my father is either alive or dead.” There was a brief pause during which Judy was sure that Junior would be laughing, if he laughed that was. “Given that he is, and has been, neither of those things, and also given that to all intents and purposes _I am Delamain_ \- as V would say, it boils down to the fact that it’s mine, all mine. Do you have a favourite colour?”

“I like purple,” she said weakly, mind focused far more on the idea of AIs that _were_ other AIs that… it hurt her head and she resolved not to think about it.

“As you like. V said that you were likely to want to go into the Badlands. Should I have myself upgraded to cope with off-road conditions?”

“You do you,” she said absently, thoughts still whirling. Trying not to think about something rarely worked, after all. After a moment she realised that the conversation had died into nothing, and gave herself a shake.

“Right. I have things to see, people to do. I’ll holler if anything comes up.”

“I look forward to your call.”

Junior’s engine turned over as she was getting out of the car, and she watched him pull out of the parking lot with a low rumble of restrained power. Judy was no gearhead but she knew enough to recognise that Junior had an absolute monster under his hood - and if some of the rumours she’d heard about the ‘Excelsior’ package were true then she now had, essentially, her very own tank.

And enough weapons to outfit half the Mox.

When had this started to feel as if she was gearing up for war?

* * *

_*That asshole killed her! That fucking bastard…_


	5. Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy finally learns the title of the song that's been following her around. She meets another of V's contacts, who might be able to help her to find out what it means.

> _Junior’s engine turned over as she was getting out of the car, and she watched him pull out of the parking lot with a low rumble of restrained power. Judy was no gearhead but she knew enough to recognise that Junior had an absolute monster under his hood - and if some of the rumours she’d heard about the ‘Excelsior’ package were true then she now had, essentially, her very own tank._
> 
> _And enough weapons to outfit half the Mox._
> 
> _When had this started to feel as if she was gearing up for war?_

* * *

There was only one place - or rather one _person_ \- that had come to mind when Judy thought about how to identify the snatch of music. She hadn’t bothered to go back inside - she was decent, caffeinated, heavily armed, and had her cigarettes. What more did she need? She’d jumped into her van and hurried to Lizzie’s. There was no time to lose, if she was lucky it was still early enough in the day that the night crew would still be closing up for the day.

She hurried into the building, not noticing the surprised looks exchanged by the morning bouncers. She was, after all, usually _leaving_ Lizzie’s at this time of day. Judy had a bad habit of pulling all-nighters; letting her sleep pattern slip further and further until she was getting up in the afternoon and working through the night. It didn’t help that from her basement workroom she barely saw any natural light.

Lizzie’s always looked … weird, in daylight. The rich jewel tones were bleached and bland in the daylight and the neon fixtures insipid, struggling even to shed a reflection on the wall behind them let alone cast any colour over the room they were ostensibly lighting. Lizzie’s, like its staff and patrons, was an entity that only truly came alive at night. It wasn’t until she’d passed through the entrance and into the bar proper that things started to look ‘right’.

Luck was on her side. The DJ was still packing up, coiling cables with her usual fastidiousness. Judy took the steps up to the DJ booth two at a time and skidded to a halt, panting slightly.

The DJ turned to her with what Judy assumed would have been a look of surprise, if she had been able to see her eyes behind her mirrored visor.

“Punchin’ Judy,” came the reply. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Hey, Fray, need you to check a bit of music,” Judy said breathlessly. “Tryin’ to find out what it is.”

DJ Fray shrugged. “Sure, guess I can take a listen. Got a shard or what?”

“No it’s on my -” 

Judy was cut off mid-sentence when the bar’s speakers fuzzed into life and the sound of a keyboard and percussion filled the room, overlaid after a few seconds by a sultry alto that seemed oddly familiar. Judy and the DJ both jumped at the sound -

_‘And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,_

_Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.’_

\- but as the lyrics continued it was Judy who staggered back in shock and would have fallen down the stairs if she hadn’t caught hold of the rail.

 _‘For well you know that it's a fool -’_ there was a familiar scratch of static, and the music cut out. Judy straightened and rubbed her arm where she’d knocked it into the wall.

“Wha- that’s the fuckin’ music!”

That wasn’t why she’d almost fallen, though. Hearing her own name in the snatch of lyrics had confirmed her suspicion - the music was _following her_. It had to be. There were only so many times she could chalk things up to coincidence, or to her desperate brain latching on to any tiny little thing trying to find meaning in random events.

Fray reached up and took off her visor, squinting at the sudden light

“You think the Beatles are stalking you?”

“Bugs are… what? No, some.. I dunno, some AI or somethin’. Those speakers are run from your decks right?”

Fray snorted, rubbing at one eye.

“Not bugs, ya gonk. The Beatles. Some classical band from the 19-somethings. That’s one of their songs - ‘Hey Jude’. ‘Cover of course, they were all dudes.”

Judy was only half-listening. She moved over to the sound board and peered at it hopefully.

“So, ‘pparently there’s some… ugh, what did he call it. DHC, I think, like a really dumb AI, and it’s playin’ bits of this song. I keep hearin’ it. Thought it was some, I dunno, some viral ad corpo bullshit, but now I’m not so sure. Can you find the.. ah, is the file still in your system somewhere?”

Fray wiped her other eye, and replaced her visor

“I swear, if my deck’s damaged -”

“Please, c’n you look?” Judy shoved her hands in her pockets to hide the shaking. “It’s important.”

The DJ sighed, and moved past Judy, gently shoving her out of the way?.

“Sure, Jude. It’ll be - yeah, here it is. Recent tracks.” She tapped quickly at her hardware, then lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It’s corrupted tho’. Looks like only that bit we heard was clean enough to play. The rest’s garbage.”

“Ugh.” Judy clenched her hands in frustration. “Fuck!”

“You want a copy anyway? I can - hold up. That’s weird.”

Judy stepped up to the deck and peered over Fray’s shoulder. “What’s weird?”

“Here, see?” Fray pointed to the waveform. “It’s like there were -”

“Like there were two tracks playin’ at once,'' Judy agreed. “How come we didn’t hear the second one?”

“Way too low,” Fray said at once. “See? That’s like .. I dunno, way into the infrasonic range anyway. ‘Bout, what, 19, 20 hertz? I don’t see why it’s there, you can’t hear that low without some crazy specialised cyberware.” She leaned a little closer, peering at the readout through her visor. “It’s complex though, whatever it is. Doesn’t look like music.”

“Can you make it audible?”

“Yeah, I’ll just shift the pitch. Better play it through my headset tho’ or we’ll piss everyone off.”

Judy smiled gratefully. “Thanks Fray. I know it’s late for you.”

Fray shrugged as she swiped away at her deck. “‘S interestin’. You can buy me a drink next time you’re in.” She held a set of headphones out to Judy, and plugged a second set in for herself.

Judy put on the headphones, and prepared for - well, she hadn’t a clue what. Something.

As it turned out, she had prepared for a whole lot of nothing.

All she could hear was - static? Rushing waves, perhaps? Or maybe the wind blowing in un-numbered trees like she’d heard on a couple of braindances from her personal collection, old low fidelity things from the earliest days of the artform. It was strangely soothing and she found herself sad that it only lasted a few seconds.

She pulled off the headphones and looked at Fray, who gave her another half shrug. “Guess whatever it is, it’s not as easy as that. Anyway I gotta delta, you still want the file?”

Judy nodded, sighing. She had hoped it would be ‘as easy as that’, but had known that of course it wouldn’t be. When was it ever?

Fray shot her the file and Judy moved it to her long term storage where it sat next to the sound file she’d recorded from Junior, **unknown1** and **unknown2** staring at her with silent recrimination. What the fuck was she supposed to do with these? It felt like… It was stupid, but she was reminded of messages tied to balloons, allowed to drift over the land until they finally came to earth, their sender hoping someone would find the message, would respond.

She couldn’t shake the gut feeling that it was vitally important that she figure out what was going on. Was someone _(Valerie)_ , somewhere, desperately throwing messages into the ether, hoping they would find their way to Judy? Judy had never been one to ignore her instincts, and right now every cell of her lizard brain was screaming that she _had_ to find a way to understand.

“Thanks again, Fray,” she said distractedly, turning to head down to her den in the basement.

The hardware she had access to at Lizzies was more powerful than her own set-up, and she needed to dig into those two corrupted snippets of data. There must be a clue in there - she just had to find it.

* * *

Hours later - how many, she didn’t know, but her stomach was growling, her neck and shoulders were burning, and her nerves were clamouring for nicotine - she leaned back in her chair with a grunt of frustration.

There just wasn’t enough to work with.

There was enough similarity between the two file fragments to tell that they were definitely part of a larger whole. And that whole was gigantic - it wasn’t a simple audio file. What had shown up on Fray’s equipment as a second waveform was more than that, it was a huge fuckin’ pile of encrypted data.

The bizarre thing was that it could be - had been designed to be, even - interpreted as audio. It wasn’t only the file from Fray’s deck that had the extra layer, but also the one Judy had recorded with her own audio implant.

Encrypted data, hidden within an audio file, carefully designed so that it could be played by the majority of commercial speakers (she’d checked; the lows of the encrypted data matched the most common speakers on the market). Any part of her that was still sceptical had almost given up by this time.

The implant Judy had was not particularly common - people tended not to bother with cyberware for something as specialised as audio unless they worked in the field. That she had hers set up to capture ambient sound - that was even less common. And V had known about her set-up. 

They’d discussed cyberware before, when V had asked why Judy only had one implant and Judy had snickered and asked V to guess which of her tattoos was actually a dermal imprint. That bit of subterfuge had impressed the merc - although to Judy’s chagrin it had taken V seconds to identify the strip on her right wrist and bands around her trigger finger.

The suspicion Judy was harbouring - that not only was this a message for her, but that it was from V - settled into the pit of her belly, a comforting warmth. She sighed, turned off her computer, and headed up the stairs and out of Lizzie’s. She didn’t have anything to tune for Susie Q and didn’t have any freelance work that couldn’t wait. There was only one thing she had to do right now, and that was figure out how she was going to get a complete copy of this file. And what to do with it when she had it.

Stepping through the rear entrance of the bar she leaned against the wall, spinning her lighter thoughtfully between her fingers. What she needed was a netrunner. One who wouldn’t ask questions. The problem was, she didn’t know any netrunners.

But V did.

Judy chalked up a tally mark in her mental list of ‘kisses I owe V when I pull her gonk ass out of whatever trouble she’s in’. The points in V’s favour still didn’t outweigh ‘times I wished I could slap V for getting her gonk ass into whatever trouble she’s in’, but it was a start.

She lit a cigarette for luck, and accessed V’s contacts file,.

_“C’mon, V, you gotta have at least one ‘runner in here.”_

She skimmed quickly through the list, wondering what on earth could have happened for some of these names to appear next to each other. Why the hell would the leader of _fucking Maelstrom_ owe V a favour? Unable to restrain her curiosity, she quickly opened the note V had left attached to the entry ‘ **Maelstrom: Declan ‘Brick’ Griffin**.’

_Saved his gonk ass from a bomb that was about blow said gonk ass into meaty kibble. Wasn’t part of the gig, didn’t net me anything. But scuttlebutt says as Maestromers go, Brick’s not the worst option. Worth a try if you need some chaotic fucking violence perpetrated with extreme lack of concern for property damage. Might have to pay him, though._

Judy couldn’t help but laugh at at how much that sounded like V, but the sound came out brittle. Fuck, she missed her idiot woman.

_C’mon, Judy, netrunners. Not gangoons._

Blowing a strand of hair away from her eyes she scanned over the rest of the entries, making a mental note of which ones to come back to later (honestly? All of them), until she came to ‘ **Netrunner: Nix** ’ 

_Not gonna give you his name and break the ‘runner code. He’s ex-Arasaka, same as me, leaked some info to N54 during that big cyberpsycho scandal. Got away with it, too. Must have some megadirt on someone. Nix is your man for anything runner-related. Choom is godlike, and I know of what I speak._

_Came across Bartmoss’ (yeah, that Bartmoss) old ‘deck a while back and showed it to Nix. He got some interesting stuff off it, even if it nearly flatlined him - I pulled him out in time. Surprised the shit out of him, don’t think he realised I knew anything about ‘running. That’s why he owes me. Depending on what you need, Nix’ll either want paying, or he’ll help because he’s like any ‘runner, can’t keep his nose out of places it ain’t supposed to be._

_If you need to get deeper into my place than I’ve set you up to be - and that’s only because there’s dangerous shit down there and you’re no ‘runner, Jude - Nix is your guy. Just introduce him to Anubis and you’ll be golden. Just make sure you go in with him, the algo’s only set up to accept Nix if it picks up your bio-sig at the same time as his. Can’t think why you’d need to, but I ain’t no Misty._

Judy drummed her fingers against her thigh. The only thing attached to the entry was a holo number. She stared at it for a moment longer, before shrugging, and composing a message.

I was given your details by a mutual friend. I need some netrunning help. Can we meet?

She read over the message one last time, before blowing out a slow breath and sending it.

She had enough time to grab a Holobites Peach Pie, but she hadn’t even reached her van before the reply came.

Tell me who this mutual friend is. Then maybe.

She sent the reply with a smirk -

V

\- and then climbed into the van. She had a feeling that the answer would come quickly. She wasn’t disappointed.

Come to the Afterlife. I’ll tell the door staff you’re expected. 

She cracked the heat tab on the pie, shook the pouch, and wedged it between her thighs to start warming up. Those things were foul cold. Not much better heated either but at least it wasn’t grape.

* * *

When, over the course of the short drive to Little China and the Afterlife, her radio flickered away from its standard ‘Radio Vexelstrom’ setting to play a few bars of ‘Hey Jude’, she didn’t snarl and viciously twist the volume knob down. Instead, she made sure to capture every precious note, and tuck the file away carefully next to its fellows in her long-term storage.

_‘-- don’t be afraid,_

_You were made to go out and get her.’_

* * *

Judy felt small and out of place walking down the stairs to the Afterlife. The weight of V’s pistol against her back was comforting, and she made a note to make her holster a permanent part of her wardrobe.

The wannabe patrons hanging about near the door gave her looks of derision, their eyes lingering on her Mox tattoos. She fought the urge to cringe. She was _proud_ to be a Mox, dammit. So she threw her shoulders back and injected extra swagger into her step.

When she stepped up to the enormous bouncer, she could hear sniggers. The sniggers died away when the giant man stepped aside to let her in after a short conversation. She smirked internally, and slipped through the heavy double doors.

Even during the daytime, the Afterlife had a certain hum of business about it. The music still played, loud enough to drown out anyone’s conversation to all but the most determined observer. The bar was still tended. Patrons lingered in small clusters, the line between those who had just arrived and those who had never left blurring into insignificance.

Judy made her way cautiously into the space. She knew who she was meeting, but not where, or even what he looked like. She made her way to the bar, trying to catch the eye of the barmaid who was slouched against a pillar and paging through a screamsheet.

The woman looked up, gave her an easy grin, and sauntered over to lean forward with her hands spread against the top of the bar.

“What can I getcha honey?”

“Not drinkin’,” Judy said with a slight shake of her head. “Meetin’ someone here, thought you might be able to point me in the right direction. Name of Nix?”

The barmaid raised one eyebrow, giving Judy a more interested look.

“End of the bar,” she said, gesturing lazily, “then hang a right, straight through the door. Gotta say, you don’t look the type.”

Judy could recognise a probing question when she saw one.

“Prob’ly not,” she said tightly. “Thanks.” She nodded tersely, and went to find the mysterious Nix.

He was almost exactly what she had expected. Sleek netrunner suit, glint of chrome from the neural port at the back of his head, miniaturised cyberdeck strapped to his arm - nothing like the clunky thing she had at home. He turned from his screen as she entered.

“Huh,” he said, raising one eyebrow. “Not at all what I was expectin’. Then again, knowing V, not sure I should have been expecting anything. You have some work for me?”

“Perhaps.” Judy paused for a moment, unsure of where to begin. “I think someone is trying to get a message to me. Through the Net.”

Nix’s eyebrow quirked higher.

“All I know is that I’ve been hearin’ random bits of music, and there’s hidden data under the audio track. Encrypted into sound, sub-sonic. And apparently the file’s bein’ delivered by a DHC. I think… I dunno, maybe that it’s trackin’ me? But I need to get that whole file. I can’t just wait to put together a jigsaw.”

By the time Judy had finished her explanation, Nix’s eyebrow had levelled, but his eyes were widened in surprise.

“Well now.” He leaned back in his chair and levelled a contemplative stare at her. She shifted uneasily.

“You know that sounds crazy, right?”

“I know!” Judy took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. “I know.” She tried to keep her voice steady. “It sounds bugfuck nuts. But I can’t think of anythin’ else it could be. Far as I know, music ain’t chasin’ anyone else around. Then, there’s the song. It’s got my name in.”

Nix laced his fingers together over his stomach and kept watching her calmly. Judy tried not to fidget. Eventually he spoke again.

“Let’s say I believe you. What do you want me to do?”

“I need the whole file,” Judy said immediately. “Maybe need your help to decrypt it, too. Might need you to help me get into V’s Architecture, could be she’s got something down there that’d be useful.”

“What’s V got to do with this?” Nix looked puzzled.

“Think the message might be from her.”

He shook his head dismissively. “Doubt it. Kid had promise but something like that’d take more expertise.”

Judy cocked her head in surprise. She had assumed Nix knew.

“You… you do know V’s a ‘runner, right?”

“Wannabe,” he said with a grin.

“Fuck wannabe! She don’t have no gear since ‘Saka stripped it when they kicked her to the kerb. Half her skull is ceramic and titanium now. But - V was one of the best. She never told you?”

The look of surprise was back on Nix’s face. “Never did,” he said slowly. “That’d explain a few things. The little sneak.”

Judy smirked. “Yeah, she liked to keep that one close to the bone. Guess I can see why. People don’t like corpo-rats at the best of times, least of all ‘runners. Sure you of all people can understand.”

Nix fixed her with a hard glare, then nodded. “Suppose.” He shook his head. “Right. I guess she could have the chops to put something like that together then.” He thought for a moment, his startling grey optics flickering back and forth. “A DHC is pretty dumb. It’s probably homing in on something simple. Your bio-sig seems likely. Might be as easy as taking you into the Net and going fishing.” He grinned. “How do you feel about playing bait?”

She gulped.

“I… can do that? I guess?”

Nix nodded and stood up, clapping her on the shoulder as he strode towards his netrunning chair.

“You’ll be fine, kid. We’re only going to dip our toes in the water, see what comes nibbling.”

He settled back into the chair, gently rocking the base of his skull back and forth against the jacks until the chair recognised him and connected.

“Just jack into that ‘deck there. I’ll find you, take you in. You run the Net before?”

Judy nodded, pulling out her personal link and jacking in to Nix’s ‘deck.

“A bit,” she said, screwing up her nose as the interface flickered into view on her HUD. 

She preferred cybergoggles. What you saw through the primitive medium of a link and whatever day-to-day optics you used - cyber-eyes, or lenses like Judy preferred - was just so granular and distorted. It was as if someone had slung a net of glowing dots over the world and then turned out the lights. She wondered what Nix saw when the data was fed directly in through his neural ports. Had V missed seeing the Net like that?

“Right, I see you,” Nix said, his voice coming in layers through her ears and her link. “Just gonna slide in, nice and easy, see what comes sniffing around. Try not to fight me.”

The feeling of someone else taking control of her avatar was one Judy would never get used to. In reality there was no physical sensation but it made her skin crawl. Still, she reminded herself, V had said it would be safe to go to Nix for help. She puffed out a breath and relinquished control, letting Nix’s virtual presence guide her.

She had the vague sense of being surrounded by complex structures as they sped through the datastream. They jinked back and forth in an intricate pattern that must have made sense to Nix but served only to make Judy feel faintly nauseated. They paused briefly so Nix could… do something arcane and complicated in front of a solid wall of ICE. The wall briefly flickered open to allow them passage before sealing behind them and disappearing, taking the structures they had passed with it.

She was impressed. Nix’s data fortress wasn’t a huge hulking thing bending cyberspace around it. Instead it simply… wasn’t there. Hard to hack something you couldn’t see.

Nix jaunted a little further out into the data streams before stopping. They were by a small node that - well, Judy had no idea what it was, but it wasn’t prepossessing. This was good. She didn’t exactly fancy loitering next to Arasaka HQ.

 _“Now, we wait,”_ he said, his words inserting themselves directly into her understanding without bothering to go through her ears first.

Judy nodded, forgetting for a moment that he wouldn’t be able to see her. Nix took a moment to steady her, then let go. Judy flailed for a moment before she found her equilibrium. It was a little like treading water, she thought, before correcting herself. No, it was more like diving, when you were perfectly neutral - neither sinking nor rising. With that thought, her guts stopped writhing. Ok, She could do this.

It didn’t take long.

Moving towards them through the data stream was a small sleek AI. It homed in on them and settled in front of Judy. How an AI could look expectant, Judy didn’t know, but this one managed it.

 _“Looks like this is it,”_ said Nix. _“Just stay put, I’ll see if this neat little thing is going to cough up its payload.”_

Judy waited.

 _“Nothing doing,”_ she heard after a minute. _“I can probably brute force it but let’s see if it’ll deliver to an authorised user - that is, you.”_

_“What do I do?”_

_“Might not have to do anything much. Try initiating a transfer, see what happens.”_

Judy shrugged, and set her link to accept an incoming file. Nothing happened for a moment - then she screamed.

It felt like her bones had turned to molten lead, as if her guts were ropes of fire.

The sensation lasted for a second that felt like an eternity before a blissful chill encased the heat. She choked off a sob of gratitude and tried not to wrench her link out of Nix’s deck.

_“Easy, I got you. File came in too hard and fast. I’ve diverted it to my deck, just hold out until we’ve got the whole thing.”_

It felt like they stayed submerged in the Net for an hour, Nix’s ICE buffering Judy from the data that was still pouring white-hot through her synapses. She felt alternately frozen and burning and she wasn’t sure she’d ever experienced anything more terrifying. Nix was the only thing standing between her and a torrent of data that threatened to burn out her nervous system.

Finally it was over.

Judy must have passed out at some point. When she struggled back to consciousness, she was lying on Nix’s netrunning chair, a jacket folded under her head. Nix was sitting at his desk.

“Didja get the number of the truck?” She asked hoarsely. Nix snorted.

“Well if you can make jokes that bad, nothing important got fried.”

Judy rolled her eyes and sat up carefully, wincing as her head throbbed in protest.

“Maybe not but my head is fuckin’ splittin’.”

Nix pointed to a glass of water that had been set on the table, next to a carton of painkillers.

“Figured you’d want those.”

With mumbled gratitude, Judy washed down a couple of tabs before gulping the rest of the water. Feeling slightly more human, she scrambled off the chair and moved over to Nix.

“Please tell me we got something?”

“I have good news and bad news,” Nix said, gesturing to his screen. Judy looked, but all she could see was yet more encrypted data.

“Good news, file looks to be complete. Massive too, no wonder it nearly burned out your system. Bad news, it’s locked up tighter’n - well, tight. You were right about V. She’s good. Very good. If I try and decrypt this I stand as much chance of triggering an auto-destruct as anything else.” Nix looked frustrated, and Judy felt her hopes dropping.

“Right,” he said, pushing back from the desk. “No time like the present. You said she might have something useful in her storage? You’re probably right. That kind of encryption, there’s going to be a key. And she’s probably stashed it on the basement level of her Architecture.”

Nix had a manic gleam in his eyes that reminded Judy of V when she had a particularly challenging gig lined up.

“Now is good,” she said. “Thanks, Nix.”

“No, thank _you_ ,” he told her, scooping various bits of tech into a duffel. “This is going to be _fun_.”

* * *

Rita had found herself backed into a corner - literally. Those Tyger Claw fucktards had caught her alone and unprepared. No way would they have managed to get the drop on her otherwise. But they had, and now she was crouching in the small, stinking space behind a dumpster, bullets slamming into the concrete of the wall behind her and sending a shower of dust and rubble down to gently ping and clatter on her skin.

There was a gentle tug at her ankle, and she looked down to see a cat. The cat had just dropped something round at her feet.

“Not a good time, cat!” Rita hissed. The cat hissed back at her, and swatted her ankle with its claws. It nudged the object. Rolling her eyes, Rita picked it up and was about to toss it away, when she realised what she held in her hand.

With a wide smirk, she pulled the pin, tossed the grenade gently in the air, and gave it a careful whack of her baseball bat.

“Fire in the hole!”


	6. How to Disappear Completely - Radiohead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nix and Judy venture into V's virtual space to find a way to decrypt the mysterious file.

> _“Good news, file looks to be complete. Massive too, no wonder it nearly burned out your system. Bad news, it’s locked up tighter’n - well, tight. You were right about V. She’s good. Very good. If I try and decrypt this I stand as much chance of triggering an auto-destruct as anything else.” Nix looked frustrated, and Judy felt her hopes dropping._
> 
> _“Right,” he said, pushing back from the desk. “No time like the present. You said she might have something useful in her storage? You’re probably right. That kind of encryption, there’s going to be a key. And she’s probably stashed it on the basement level of her Architecture.”_
> 
> _Nix had a manic gleam in his eyes that reminded Judy of V when she had a particularly challenging gig lined up._
> 
> _“Now is good,” she said. “Thanks, Nix.”_
> 
> _“No, thank you ,” he told her, scooping various bits of tech into a duffel. “This is going to be fun .”_

* * *

“Okay, what have we got here...” Nix placed his duffle next to the miniframe rack and bent closer to the gear. “Custom Fuyutsui looks like, nice, nice - ‘frames’re Fuyutsui too?” He leaned around the back of the rack, still muttering to himself. “Yeah - ooh, Tycho memdrives, _very_ nice.”

He pulled his head back. “Preem gear here. Definitely got plenty of raw power. Have to admit, after seeing that DHC, I’m excited to see what she’s running in there.”

He rummaged in his duffle bag. 

“Going to take a quick look - don't want to connect to the Net if we can avoid it, NetWatch are on a rampage right now. Something's had their panties in a bunch ever since that Arasaka engram prison debacle."

He shot Judy a shrewd look.

"Wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Judy shrugged.

"Only enough to have the same thoughts as you, that V probably got twisted up in it."

"Alright, well I'm not making any promises, I'll probably have to take this lot to mine or bring my chair over, don’t fancy getting fried when I try and crack V's security."

Judy hit herself gently in the forehead. “Such a fuckin’ gonk. Forgot to tell you, you won’t need to crack anythin’, V’s already given you access.”

Nix leaned back and gave her a wide-eyed stare.

“You serious?”

“Well, V said her Hellhound was only set up to accept your bio-sig if you’re with me, but yeah.”

Nix whistled softly.

“I don’t know why I’m acting surprised. Of course she’s running custom soft. Right, guess we’re going in then. Got your own gear right?”

Judy just stepped over to her cyberdeck and goggles, setting the ‘trodes of the customised wreath against her temples.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Nix gave her gear a once-over with a nod of approval.

“Raven Microcyber?”

“Yeah,” she confirmed, patting the deck. “Cormorant. Mostly stock, upped the RAM recently but I don’t need any extra juice. Hardly use her as it is, poor girl.”

“Well, just in case anything goes wrong, we’ll go in separately, my deck and yours. You first, I’ll join you in a sec.”

Judy nodded, and jacked in.

The familiar sight of V’s architecture made her smile. She knew it wasn’t _real_ , but it felt like coming home. She moved confidently to the lobby. The hellhound came to attention as she stepped through the datawall, but relaxed and came to greet her as soon as she was fully inside the construct. It even wagged its tail.

“Well, there’s a crazy thing”. 

Nix’s avatar materialised in the doorway, and Anubis immediately sprang back into its ready position.

_“Intrusion detected. Please present your credentials. Unauthorised access will be met with force commensurate to the severity of the incursion.”_

Nix looked around, and Judy pointed to the Hellhound.

“That kid,” Nix chuckled and held out a hand to the construct. Anubis sniffed at his fingers.

_“Processing Anubis input… Bio-signature recognised. Identity: Nix. Secondary requirement met. Access: All Areas. Messages: one.”_

Judy smiled. Typical V. Damn, she’d prepared for everything.

“Play message.”

The same floating window appeared, V large as life and grinning at them both. She looked the same as she had in the message she had left for Judy, down to her clothes. She must have recorded both of the messages on the same day. Her eyes were even a little swollen, for all her smiles.

_“Hey, Nix. And Judy - hey, baby. Can’t figure why you might need to get down into my architecture but like I’ve said before, I ain’t Misty. Just tryin’ to be prepped for everything. So anyway, if you’re there, means there’s no reason to keep this place locked down. Gates’re open, Demons are all set to friendly.”_

She looked indecisive for a moment, then shrugged.

_“If you see anythin’ you like the look of, take a copy. No point me bein’ precious about my babies any more. Sorry I held out on you before. Don’t really like talking about my corp cowboy days. Figure if anyone’d understand, you would.”_

She sketched a wave in the air.

_“Take care, choom. Hack the Planet, and all that.”_

The window shrank down to a small dot, and disappeared with a faint popping sound.

“Loving this place,” Nix said as he looked around, before heading towards the representation of the elevator. “Not many people bother with Kismet-style VR any more. This is a labour of fucking love.”

The doors slid open at their approach, and shut behind them. Soft, easy-listening music began to play. Judy and Nix glanced at each other, before breaking out into a mutual fit of giggles.

“Elevator muzak. Only V.” Nix eyed the panel before selecting the lowest floor, still chuckling.

Judy sniggered, before cocking her head and listening more intently.

“Hold on. That V’s voice?”

_‘So, get away_

_Another way to feel what you didn't want yourself to know_

_And let yourself go_

_You know you didn't lose your self-control_

_Let's start at the rainbow_

_Turn away_

_Another way to be where you didn't want yourself to go_

_Let yourself go_

_Is that a compromise’_

“It’s certainly not Hallie Coggins,” said Nix after a moment.

Judy eyed him sideways, and Nix glared at her.

“What? So I’m not allowed to have eclecticl tastes?”

“Just didn’t take you for the Postmodern Pop type,” she said, restraining her laughter. Teasing Nix should probably wait until after he’d helped her with the file.

Tthe doors opened with a gentle ping. Nix motioned for Judy to stay back, and stuck his head through the opening. He looked around, then beckoned her forward.

V had modelled this level after - well, Judy wasn’t entirely sure. The area was hewn out of solid rock, right down to the toolmarks in the walls. It was lit with torches set into sconces, which flared up brightly as they approached. The well-lit room seemed welcoming, if cramped, but Judy could imagine it being thoroughly creepy in the gloom. Which was presumably the idea.

In the center of the room was a large stone plinth, and standing on the plinth was a gigantic motionless gargoyle. Or - not entirely motionless, because as Judy stepped forwards she noticed that its carved pupils moved to follow her. That was fucking disturbing.

Spaced evenly around the room were four barred iron gates, each with a different pattern worked into the bars. Nix walked up to the nearest one and bent closer to examine it. With a quick gesture, a window of densely-packed code popped out from the spot he was looking at.

“I’m starting to think there isn’t a single program in this place she hasn’t at least modified,” he muttered. “I recognise the framework of this but the rest…” He turned to Judy. “Don’t get me wrong, I could crack it, given time. But I won’t say I’m not glad I don’t have to.”

Judy was admiring the intricate designs on the gates.

“Guess the designs tell you what’s in there?”

Nix nodded.

“Should think so.” He opened the gate he was looking at, using the antiquated handle. “Shit - nothing but back-doors.” Judy could see his hands clenching and unclenching. “Not what we came for.”

He stepped back, and moved to the next gate.

“C’mon V, where’s your decryption rig?”

“Think this is it?” Judy was looking into the third room, which held a single table. On top of the table was a machine that looked like a cross between a typewriter and an old-fashioned telephone exchange.

“Gotta be,” Nix agreed, and stepped into the room past her.

He reached down, and picked up the machine - an exact copy instantly materialised in its place. He pushed his hands together, squashing the machine smaller and smaller, until he could fit it in his pocket.

“Right, I’ll install that in my deck, then we’ll see what it can do with this file.”

Nix paused outside the elevator.

“Wonder if she’s covered any Neon Haze?”

* * *

It worked - of course it did - and Nix left Judy with the decrypted file. She recognised the file format instantly. It was a braindance, because of course, what else could it be?

She stared at the screen for a long time, the innocuous file loaded up in her editing software. She had no idea what she would find, when she dived in. She was terrified. Despite the safeties on her soft, despite the fail-safes built into her rig, unknown brain dances always carried a danger. If it were anything else, she would run it through a whole barrage of checks and cleaners, but she didn’t dare. She couldn’t take the risk of altering a single line of code.

She stood up and walked away from the room, the single file still blinking on her screens. Her feet carried her to the roof and rather than sitting in one of the battered chairs she sat on the edge, legs hanging off into space. She lit a cigarette, and stared absently across the city.

There wasn’t actually a choice to be made, she knew that. She would be running the BD. She just needed to take one quiet moment first. Just in case. There was a small chance this would be the last thing she ever did.

But really, would that be so bad?

There wasn’t much worth sticking around for, after all. The only thing that had been keeping her going recently had been the thought that there was still something she could do for V - and if this was the end of that path then, well. So be it. At least she’d tried.

She stubbed the cigarette out.

It wasn’t like starting up a commercial BD cartridge, or even like jumping into a raw virtu. It was more like trying to run a blank cart. There was only the impression of soft, fuzzy static. It should have been disquieting, but it was soothing. The static buzz on her skin slowly solidified into a singular sensation. 

Safety.

Warmth.

A lover’s arms.

A body behind her, a solid warm presence.

A heartbeat, thumping steadily against her back, the regular _ba-dump, ba-dump_ a grounding counterpoint to the frantic racing in her own chest.

(And that was strange, still being able to feel her own body in a braindance.)

While she was pondering the oddity of a braindance that didn’t make you feel that you were someone else, but merely that you were some _where_ else, she became conscious of another sensation. There was a cheek pressed to hers, and she felt the arms around her give a gentle squeeze. A lump swelled in her throat and if she had truly been standing her legs would have buckled. She couldn’t see anything but darkness, but she closed her eyes anyway, afraid of what she might see if she allowed herself.

Then she heard her.

_‘Hey, Jude._

_‘You know, all the time I was… alive, I always meant to ask you. Did you know that was the title of a song? By a classic band called ‘The Beatles’ from the 20th century._

_‘I think maybe I always knew something like this was going to happen._

_‘I think I was saving this song for now._

_‘I think - all I can do now is think._

_‘I wish I still had fingers so I could play this for you. I can synth the music but - it’s not really the same. Nothing is the same, any more.’_

There was a moment of wistful silence, and then the sound of soft guitar strings picking out a gentle melody. After a moment, her voice joined the guitar, and Judy knew that she had been right all along. Of course that had been V.

_‘Hey Jude, don't make it bad._

_‘Take a sad song and make it better._

_‘Remember to let her into your heart,_

_‘Then you can start to make it better._

_‘Hey Jude, don't be afraid._

_‘You were made to go out and get her._

_‘The minute you let her under your skin,_

_‘Then you begin to make it better._

_‘And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,_

_‘Don't carry the world upon your shoulders._

_‘For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool_

_‘By making his world a little colder._

_‘Hey Jude, don't let me down._

_‘You have found her, now go and get her._

_‘Remember to let her into your heart,_

_‘Then you can start to make it better._

_‘So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,_

_‘You're waiting for someone to perform with._

_‘And don't you know that it's just you, hey Jude, you'll do,_

_‘The movement you need is on your shoulder._

_‘Hey Jude, don't make it bad._

_‘Take a sad song and make it better._

_‘Remember to let her under your skin,_

_‘Then you'll begin to make it_

_‘Better better better better better better, oh.’_

The singing faded off into humming, and Judy realised that she was being gently rocked from side-to-side. She felt a gentle kiss on her cheek, and despite the fear, she opened her eyes, and turned her head.

V smiled at her.

Judy had never seen her like this.

There were no lines of pain around her eyes, her mouth was curved in a gentle, easy smile, her shoulders were loose. This was V as she was meant to be, not crushed under the weight of a curse she didn’t deserve.

 _‘I’m sorry I can’t really be there,’_ V began after a moment. _‘I sent this message in the hopes that you would realise what it was, even that it would reach you at all. I have a question for you. And depending on your answer, there are two ways things can go. But before that, I need to tell you a story.’_

V stepped back, reached out and stroked Judy’s cheek gently with the backs of her fingers before briefly cupping her face.

 _‘And before I tell you the story, I need you to make sure you’re in a safe place. This is going to take a while.’_ She smiled wryly. _‘I’m not going anywhere.’_

* * *

Rita came out out of Lizzie’s at the end of her shift to find that dumb cat had followed her. It was sitting smugly on the CHOO2 tank of a motorcycle, washing its face. Rita looked around in mild confusion. It had to be the same cat, there was hardly a surplus of cats in NC as it was. Plus this one was distinctive. It was sort of cute, in an ugly, naked way.

“Anyone see whose bike that is?” She asked. The bouncers at the door shrugged, neither of them apparently interested.

Curious, Rita wandered up to the bike and admired it. If she knew her bikes (spoiler: she did) it was an ARCH Nazaré - custom paint job too, candy pink and black.

The cat made an imperious chirruping noise, and Rita looked down at it.

“What?”

The cat put out a paw, and nudged something small and flat along the tank. Without thinking, Rita picked it up - and then, as she registered what it was, threw herself backwards with her hands over her ears. When bike’s anti-theft measures didn’t kick in, she cautiously climbed to her feet

She pressed her thumb to the key card, and the bike came to life with a beep and the low rumble of an over-tuned engine.

“Fuck me.”

The cat purred.


End file.
